The event had been set to run from 17-19 April at Apex’s premises in Hemel Hempstead but has been postponed due to a series of delays to the shipping of the LED-UV equipped SRA1 RMGT (Ryobi) 924 four-colour press, which was due to be a major attraction at the event and the key contribution from Apex.
Apex managing director Bob Usher said: “It appears that a combination of bad weather conditions between Japan and Singapore and the Chinese New Year has caused the problem because nothing comes out of China during the New Year and it creates a tidal wave of shipping after that event.
“The big importers from around the world clearly got priority on the container ships against the trickle that they perhaps get from the printing press market.
“With the forecast we were getting last week, we thought that we could keep the show to run to the timetable. But on Monday morning we had this calamitous email from the shipping company saying that the press had missed the boat altogether because of poor weather and the prioritising of other bigger players.”
He added: “The shipping can be anything between four weeks and six to seven weeks and this machine has now been changed three times in delivery terms from the shipping agent.
“We’ve then got to allow around 10 days to install a straight machine plus we then need to calibrate the machine to the CTP so that the two are shaking hands with each other and printing exactly, and to a standard that you would need in a showroom. So it could take two to three weeks to get it all tuned and ready to open doors up.
“You can’t have an open house without a machine. We’re running into holiday season now with Easter and then the bank holidays in May. So when we’ve got the machine here on terra firma and we’ve put it together, we’ll talk to our co-exhibitor partners and try and find another date that we can run the event either in the first half of the year or, if not, in the autumn.”
Co-exhibitors, speakers and companies that had pre-registered to attend have been contacted. Usher is hopeful that the co-exhibitors, which were set to include KAS Paper Systems, Ashgate Automation, Tharstern, Graphic Arts Supplies, CyanX and the IPIA, will continue to support the event when it is rescheduled.
“It’s a very good value for money show for them and it’s been successful in the past so I see no reason why it won’t continue in that way, it’s just disappointing [to have to postpone].
Real Print and Finish was first launched in 2015 and has run every year since. Last year's event attracted around 100 visitors from 60 companies across the three days.
